The Ultimate Cows Quiz

Answer: Holstein

Holsteins are the most common breed of dairy cattle in the United States. They are well known for their milk production. The black and white cows were first imported to the United States from the Netherlands in 1631. Holstein spot patterns are like fingerprints in humans, no two are alike. Farmers use this fact to protect herds from theft.

Answer: scow

Cows can be rearranged into scow. A scow is a flat bottomed barge often used to haul garbage.

Answer: Joaquin Phoenix

Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor Award for his performance in "Joker" (2019). The next day, Phoenix visited a Los Angeles area slaughterhouse with an animal rights organization. The actor rescued a cow and her newborn calf and transferred them to an animal sanctuary in Action, California. The cow is named Liberty and the calf is named Indigo.

DiCaprio is noted for his political work on global climate change. Leto is an animal rights activist, but not to the extent Phoenix is. Brad Pitt has done a great deal of philanthropic work restoring New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Answer: Stella McCartney

Stella McCartney, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney, has blazed her own trail as a leading fashion designer. Like her father, she is a major advocate for vegetarianism. McCartney has worked to create animal free products in her fashion lines, including faux fur. At the close of her Fall 2020 show in Paris, McCartney had models dressed as cows, rabbits and foxes walk the runway carrying vegan handbags,

Answer: Kau

The Kaus are the cow like creatures in Neo Pets. The online game is set in a land called Neopia, where players take care of virtual pets. The site was created in 1999, and was taken over by JumpStart Games in 2014.

Kaus come in a wide range of colors, including blue. The Kau was first seen in Neopets in July 2000. Among the famous Kaus in the game were Kauvara, Kalora, Leera Heggle, Fortune Teller and The Kau Defender.

Answer: World's tallest cow

Blossom measured 190 centimeters, just over six feet in height, and was named the tallest cow by the Guinness Book. Sadly, Blossom died in May 2015, just a year after winning her title.

In 2019, a Brazilian cow named Marília FIV Teatro de Naylo set a new record for milk production, breaking a 39 year old record. She produced 127.5 kilograms of milk in a single day.

Answer: Uruguay

Uruguay had 12 million cattle in a nation with 3.5 million people, leading to the impressive ratio. Argentina, far better known for its cattle ranching and gauchos, had 54 million cattle and 44 million people (a ratio of 1.2).

Brazil had an impressive 252 million cattle (now we know where the Amazon is going) but in a nation of 211 million people, so their per capita rate was also 1.2.

Venezuela had 14 million cows in a nation of 28 million people, so its ratio was only 0.5. Beef prices went through the roof following the economic and political collapse of 2018, so cattle may be safer in Venezuela than most countries.

Four countries had more cows than people in 2020: Uruguay, New Zealand, Argentina and Brazil.

Answer: Spanish conquistadors

There is a record of Coronado bringing cattle across the Rio Grande in 1541. Don Juan de Onate is known to have brought cattle into New Mexico as early as 1598. There were also cattle in Florida by the time Saint Augustine was founded in 1565.

The Plymouth pilgrims first brought cattle into Massachusetts in 1624. While French explorers brought cattle to Canada in the 1540s, they did not import cows to US territory until the late 1600s. The first Dutch ship to import cattle arrived in 1625.

Answer: France

The rather bizarre game has you take BSE infected cows to France, where the cows wander through unexploded mine fields left over from the World Wars. The more cows you blow up, the more money you make, and the player with the most money wins the game.

Egypt actually holds the record for land mines, with 23 million. They are relics of the wars Egypt fought with Israel in 1956, 1967 and 1973, although some date back to World War II. Iran ranks second, with millions of land mines left over from their war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Answer: Georgia O'Keeffe

"Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" is exactly what it sounds like, a cow skull on a red, white and blue background. The painting, perhaps ironically, is supposed to represent the Spirit of America. It is part of the Stieglitz collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
O'Keeffe also did "Cow's Skull with Calico Roses", which is at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Remington did have cow skulls in his Western art, but generally as a side detail. Dove and Marin, along with O'Keeffe, were part of the Steiglitz Circle, a group of modernist painters who tended to focus on regional themes, especially landscapes.

Answer: MacBeth

The specific line is "Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man!" which MacBeth says in Act 5, Scene 8. The use of "cowed" to mean intimidated may come from the Old Norse word "kuga" which means "to oppress." Another interpretation is that cows are viewed as docile and easily intimidated.

Back in 2010, a group of Shakespearean actors decided to broaden their audience to cows. Reading "light" scenes from Shakespeare's comedies, they actually increased the cows' milk production by four percent. The cows seemed to enjoy "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

Answer: Mooby

Mooby is first seen in "Dogma" (1999). She is a television character who has created an entire empire of films, videos, theme parks and fast food restaurants. The cow is inspired by the golden calf from the Bible. Mooby reappears in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001) and "Clerks II" (2006).

Pat-Pat is "the king of all the monkeys" and Enoch is "the Bible-quoting aadrvark." They are sidekicks of Mooby the Cow. While marijuana is a prevalent theme in the films of Kevin Smith, he doesn't have a character named Doobie in "Dogma."

Smith has actually moved "Mooby" restaurants into reality, creating them as short-lived "pop up" restaurants where fans of the films can experience eating in a "Mooby's." A restaurant in Denver was hosting one in May 2021.

Answer: Seals and Crofts

"Cows of Gladness" was released by Seals and Crofts in 1969. It was James Seals who gave us the lyric: "Milk the cows of gladness, before they all run dry. Search the rim of madness, before you lean and sigh." Seals and Crofts were a soft rock duo who were active between 1969 and 1980. Seals and Crofts' biggest hits were "Summer Breeze" (1972) and "Diamond Girl" (1973).

Answer: Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin, who is probably most famous for being autistic, has a Doctorate in animal behavior and has made major innovations in the ways that slaughterhouses and other animal processing facilities treat cattle. Grandin states that her autism is actually an advantage in her work, as it allows her to be more empathetic towards animals.

Bette Nesmith Graham, the mother of Mike from the Monkees, invented liquid paper. Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies in 1930. And Stephanie Kwolek is the polymer chemist who developed kevlar.

Answer: Exodus

In Exodus 32, Moses travels up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. When he returns, his brother Aaron has led the people in a rebellion in which they have forged a golden calf.

The Lord, angered at the idolatry, is prepared to kill all of the people he just rescued from slavery in Egypt; Moses manages to talk the Lord down. Moses returns to camp, melts down the golden calf, turns it into powder, and forces the Israelites to drink it. God told Moses he would "blot out" the people who had sinned against him by making the calf.

Answer: seaweed

Controlling methane emissions has been a major topic of interests for dairy scientists, both in terms of greenhouse gasses and increasing milk production. Recent research has discovered that feeding cows seaweed can reduce their methane emissions by between 50 and 80 percent.

Breanne Roque, a dairy researcher at the University of California-Davis, has done some of the leading research on this topic. California is a major dairy producer.

Answer: Lindsey Vonn

In 2005, Lindsey Vonn won the downhill race at a competition in Val D'Isere. They gave her a Brown Swiss cow, which she named Olympe (since 2006 was an Olympic year). Olympe was pregnant, and gave birth to a calf named Sunny. Olympe had another calf named Karin, named after Vonn's sister. Sunny also had calves, named Don and Shirley, after Vonn's grandparents. She boards her herd of cows near Kirchberg, Austria.

Vonn retired in 2019 after winning 82 World Cup races over the course of her career, shattering the previous record and making her the greatest female skier in history.

Answer: Young Sheldon

"Young Sheldon" is a spin-off of "The Big Bang Theory" which follows the adventures of a young Sheldon Cooper, played by Ian Armitage. The show first aired in February 2017. "Young Sheldon" was renewed through seven seasons, CBS announced in March 2021.

In the credits for "Young Sheldon" Armitage and other cast members face off against a possibly threatening Holstein cow.

"Mom" features the cast members in drunken behavior. "The Neighborhood" is a signpost with the show title. "Bob Hearts Abishola" has names around a cityscape.

Answer: Blue

"Earthbound" is a role playing game that was designed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. While it had a slow start, it has grown in popularity and is regarded as one of the greatest video games ever designed.

"Earthbound" basically follows a young boy named Ness as he fights an evil extra-terrestrial entity known as Giygas. The helpful cow is blue. The cow was painted blue by Happy Happyists, a group of cultists who seek to make everything in the world blue.

Answer: Experian

Experian, based in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the world's largest credit reporting companies, with information on over one billion people. It was founded in 1996. In 2020, the company began a campaign with Cena and a herd of purple cows.